How peer workers are spearheading harm reduction in Egypt

An illustrated portrait of two men
Mohamed Mahmoud Daoud and Ahmed El Sayed Gad are peer workers at Caritas, a non-governmental organisation in Alexandria, Egypt © Frontline AIDS/Mathieu Letellier 2023

In the third instalment of our blog series, we spotlight community members who are changing the face of harm reduction in Egypt. Through their stories, we explore what inspires their commitment to supporting the health and rights of people who use drugs.

Mohamed Mahmoud Daoud is a peer worker with Caritas, a humanitarian organisation run by the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs and a partner in Frontline AIDS’ hepatitis C programme, Innovate, Involve, Inspire, funded by Unitaid.

Mohamed injected heroin for 18 years before seeking help from Caritas. Following a lengthy recovery journey, he applied for an outreach role in the organisation. Keen to learn about harm reduction and how it might help other people who use drugs, Mohamed took a course on “behavioural modification of addiction”, eventually earning a diploma. This bolstered his confidence and helped him understand both the nature of his own drug use and the psychological processes affecting other people who use drugs.

With his personal experience and the knowledge acquired through his diploma, Mohamed now supports peers in either making their drug use safer or achieving recovery, depending on their individual goals.

One of the most important things about our harm reduction programme is to reduce stigma and discriminationMohamed Mahmoud Daoud

Influencing positive change amongst peers

Ahmed El Saed Gad followed a similar path. After receiving support from Caritas to manage his own drug use and following time coalescing in a government hospital, Ahmed was driven to help others understand their relationship to drugs.

“When I became ‘healed’, I continued on my journey and I started to en courage other addicted people to go to Caritas and benefit from the services there. Then, when Caritas needed people to do some outreach with them, I applied and I now work with them,” Ahmed explained.

For both Mohamed and Ahmed, social connection lies at the heart of their work. This is reflected in the Caritas café meet-ups, where people who inject drugs can meet with peer workers to receive harm reduction supplies and advice.

It’s a clever yet simple innovation. The café is a warm, inviting place where people can have relaxed conversations and feelings of anxiety, judgement and expectation dissolve away. Unlike traditional clinical settings, the café meet-ups have been a tonic for the peers who had experienced long periods of stigma and isolation and exclusion. As champions of this initiative, Mohamed and Ahmed are thrilled by the positive impact it has had on their peers. “One of the most important things about our harm reduction programme is to reduce stigma and discrimination,” said Mohamed.

When I became ‘healed’, I continued on my journey and I started to encourage other addicted people to go to Caritas so they could benefit from the services there. And then when Caritas needed people to do some outreach with them, I applied, and I now work with themAhmed El Saed Gad

Centring Egyptian perspectives on hepatitis C

Today, Mohamed and Ahmed also serve on the Hepatitis C Portfolio Community Advisory Board a forward-thinking group of community leaders and civil society representatives, researchers and healthcare professionals working on Unitaid’s portfolio of hepatitis C grants. He contributes insights on programmes like Innovate, Involve and Inspire, a Frontline AIDS-led programme, offering advice and the perspectives of people who use drugs in Egypt.

As Arabic speakers, they have excelled in Community Advisory Board meetings, using modern tools like Zoom and translation services to share their experiences and ideas. Their insights have been welcomed and often implemented, contributing significantly to the Board’s collective knowledge on harm reduction in Egypt.

They both emphasise the importance of the Community Advisory Board, not just to their peers but for Egypt as a whole, particularly through the impact of needle and syringe programmes in their communities, which have  potential for radical change to hepatitis C and HIV prevalence.

“The importance of the Community Advisory Board committee is that we got to know a lot of ideas and suggestions about new methods of harm reduction and how we can apply these ideas and this methodology here in Egypt through Caritas. The Board is very important for Egypt itself, not just Caritas.” — Mohamed Mahmoud Daoud

Mohamed Mahmoud Daoud and Ahmed El Saed Gad are peer workers at Caritas, a non-governmental organisation in Alexandria, Egypt, a programme partner in the Frontline AIDS-led Innovate, Involve, Inspire, a hepatitis C programme funded by Unitaid. They also serve on Unitaid’s Hepatitis C Portfolio Community Advisory Board, providing guidance on Unitaid grants implemented by Frontline AIDS, PATH, Population Services International (PSI), Médecins du Monde in Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria. India, Georgia, Armenia, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam and Ukraine.

Further Reading

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hepatitis cHIV preventionPeople who use drugs